"He's not stupid, is he?"
On the White Tiger Palace side, Kagura clutched her chest, coldly staring into the distance. By now, the powerful aura of the Four Saints' army had already receded, and their direction was clearly towards the Vermilion Bird Palace.
Now, with the four sides locked in a chaotic battle, the Four Saints Ritual is basically complete, and the four chosen individuals have all received the inheritance, possessing the bloodline condensed from the Four Saints within them. This is the top-tier demon bloodline of the fourth version, and whoever seizes it will determine the future direction. The more they can seize, the better. This is the current basic situation.
He was injured, and the forces in the Northern Lands were the least organized. Although the demons of the Heavenly Python Palace were not weak individually, they could not form a well-organized army like other forces. Otherwise, given the size of the Heavenly Python Palace, the Dragon Palace would have been swallowed up long ago.
Logically speaking, since they were injured and lost their deterrent power, they should have been easier to bully. However, they didn't expect those guys to choose to deal with the imperial court first.
That's quite clever.
"President," a faint voice said, "What do we do then? Should we send that out?"
"No rush." Kagura took a breath. "That's our last resort. I'm quite injured right now. If the Ancient Demon Clan doesn't come looking for trouble, let's hold off for now, observe the situation, and also be careful of that side."
"Over there?" The shadow in the darkness followed Kagura and saw the location of the West Sea Army.
He was immediately confused. Given the state of the West Sea Army, what was there to be wary of? Although its military strength was considerable, it lacked even a single top-tier commander. What good was such a powerful army, no matter how formidable it was?
A strong army, like the West Sea Army, with all its members Transcendent, would normally require at least six or seven Transcendent skilled deputy generals, plus a top-tier commander-in-chief. In today's warfare, having soldiers without generals is like having seemingly strong cattle and sheep, meat and blood on someone else's dinner table.
"Is the guild master worried about that Outer Heaven Demon Statue?"
"That thing wouldn't appear out of nowhere," Kagura said quietly. "Moreover, that celestial phenomenon deliberately used Outer Path Demon Robe to conceal its appearance, making it impossible for me to discern its species. Its identity doesn't match up; deliberate concealment suggests something sinister is at play. That thing is very likely a pawn of some powerful force."
" The Ancient Demon Clan?"
"It's possible," Kagura wistfully, glancing in that direction. "But it's also possible."
--
The fierce battle of the Vermilion Bird Bow soon began, between two armies that could be considered the strongest in the world!
The imperial Ghost Army is a combination of the emperor's elite troops and the fierce ghosts under King Xiang's command. It not only has formidable strength but also extremely terrifying combat experience. This is completely different from the Ghost Army that was formed in the Southern Frontier. Even Chen Qing, who had the Fighter Army and the West Sea Army at its peak, was extremely wary of the Xiao Household's Ghost Army and did not dare to confront it head-on.
The Four Saints Army goes without saying; their perfect bodies, created through some unknown method, are not only Transcendent in their physical form, but also possess the Four Symbols elements, essentially allowing each of them to cultivate both magic and martial arts. Crucially, their combat awareness is also formidable, as they are all Ancient Demon parasitizing with bloodline memories.
Parasitic bodies feel no pain, are unafraid of injury, and have no possibility of escape. Such an army is the most terrifying war machine in the world, and the devastation of a clash between the two would far exceed imagination.
Blood and flesh flew everywhere, elements splattered, not a single soldier showed any fear, their eyes immediately turning red with rage. Violent clashes of the army formations and selfless slaughter created the most primitive and brutal form of war!
Watching all this from afar, Chen Baifeng was filled with emotion.
The times are changing so fast that it feels like a dream to him.
A few years ago, such Transcendent person would have been at least a king or noble who dared not easily offend the emperor, if not a ruler who would establish his own kingdom.
Now, they're everywhere, even reduced to the lowest ranks of soldiers, fighting each other. In this era, if those powerful families don't keep up, they'll become less than ants if they're not careful.
" General Tian," Chen Baifeng looked at his deputy and asked in a low voice, "Which army do you think is stronger?"
"It's hard to say." The usually indecisive deputy general suddenly became professional upon hearing the mention of war, frowning as he analyzed seriously, "They're both very strong. The imperial court has more troops, while the Four Saints Army have higher quality troops. Although their strength is vastly different from when we fought before, things on the battlefield are still the same. For high-quality elite troops to overcome numbers, they must break through the enemy's formations. Otherwise, over time, the enemy can slowly wear you down with sheer numbers."
Chen Baifeng nodded upon hearing this. The battlefield is not like small-scale fighting. Swords and spears have no eyes, and powerful blood energy interferes with the keen senses. Everyone follows the army formation, and this way of fighting lacks flexibility, which means that superior combat power cannot fight against a hundred people like in normal combat.
Both sides are Transcendent. If you cannot overwhelm them with your qi and blood, once you enter melee combat, there will be no mercy from the surrounding blades and spears. Even if you are stronger than your opponent individually, it will be limited because you cannot remain unscathed. In such a qi and blood formation, you must activate your qi and blood at any time and cannot hold back. This means that once you are injured, your physical strength will drop very quickly due to the injury.
This is why, in previous battles, bloodline soldiers needed to be covered by ordinary soldiers. Bloodline soldiers were incredibly valuable, and losing even one would be a painful blow to the general. The clash of blood essence between the two sides would create a balance, and then exchanging the lives of ordinary soldiers for the injuries of the enemy's bloodline soldiers would be the most cost-effective tactic in a war of attrition. The large number of ordinary soldiers was also an advantage of the Central Plains because of its large population.
Of course, there is more than one tactic. At that time, the population in the north was far less than that in the Central Plains, and the number of ordinary soldiers that could be recruited was less than one-tenth of that in the Central Plains. However, wars throughout history have not been one-sided, because wars of attrition are not unsolvable.
The foundation of a war of attrition is to ensure that the army's formation remains intact, maintaining a balance of strength and preventing the situation from spiraling out of control. However, if the enemy successfully breaks through the formation, that's a completely different story.
When the Northern Wasteland were dealing with the Central Plains, their main tactic was the charge tactic. They used their most elite soldiers and the strongest charge generals to shatter the Central Plains soldiers' formations in a very short time, thus causing the Central Plains to collapse.
The armies of the Central Plains had a large number of men, which enabled them to wage a crushing war of attrition. However, their weakness was also obvious: a large number of men meant bloat, requiring complex military formations to maintain the morale of the entire army and prevent it from collapsing. Therefore, they could not easily change formations, which gave the people of the Northern Wasteland some opportunities.
Back then, the Wind King Murong Yunji was most skilled at charging into battle. She once led three thousand Northern Wolf Riders of the Murong family to crush a hundred thousand Central Plains troops and became famous throughout the world.
The Central Plains and the North have been locked in a stalemate for many years, a contest between large formations and elite charging troops, a conflict that has lasted for millennia.
And the same is true today.
The Four Saints Guard numbered only eight thousand, while the Emperor's Ghost Army numbered eighty thousand!
Despite a tenfold difference, they were able to create the same clash of qi and blood, demonstrating the individual strength of the Four Saints Guard. Each of them was probably equivalent to a thousand-man captain in the Fighter Army.
Such an army, if led by a powerful general, would be extremely strong in charging into battle. And the Ghost Army under Your Majesty's command was derived from the Flying Dragon Army, which was once the strongest in the Central Plains. Its ability to defend its formation is among the best in the world!
Which is more powerful, the strongest spear or the strongest shield?
Nobody knows for sure.